The affirmation and consolidation of the European project is based on a common effort to expand the domains and territorial dimension of the European Union. The different enlargement processes have been fulfilling political, economic, and geographical objectives and goals; however, the last few years have been marked by uncertainty regarding the calendar of accession processes for the Balkan States. If for some authors and political actors it is undeniable that the future will lead to an expansion of the European Union to this region, others warn of the ungovernability associated with moving forward without consolidating decision-making processes. This chapter aims to revisit the accession criteria (Copenhagen Criteria) and the current situation of candidate and potential candidate countries in the Balkan region in a critical dimension on the importance of these criteria for European democracy.
TopIntroduction
The European Union assumes itself as one of the most important and relevant international organizations, both in a political dimension, encompassing decision-making processes and the adoption of public policies, and in a media dimension, integrating a vision that aggregates the perception of public opinion and a set of common goals defined in an ever-changing policy framework. EU’s preponderance derives, in part, from its ability to bring countries together around a common narrative. In other words, the Member States must together ensure the dissemination of values such as the rule of law, freedom, democracy, justice, security and, above all, peace among European citizens (European Union, 2016, art. 2-3). The integration process is one of the most relevant mechanisms for the construction of the European project, especially in terms of its capacity (Börzel et al., 2017) since it is responsible for its successive expansions and for the establishment of a period of peace in the European territory after World War II.
With the end of the Cold War period, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, European integration marked a decisive space in the international political scene, with the greatest challenge, in terms of enlargement processes, to be achieved in 2004, when ten states joined the Union, in a process of enlargement to the east and south of the European continent (this process was concluded with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007). However, after this period there was a stagnation in the level of challenges associated with the enlargement of the EU, which resulted from political indecision about the project's matrix, but also from the international economic crisis that began in 2008.
Croatia's accession in 2013 would put on the agenda the theme of political and geographical reconfiguration of the Union, with the enlargement to the Balkans representing an opportunity to “heal” war wounds and enhance the political, economic and strategic influence of the EU in this region.
At this moment, however, European Union has reached an impasse. In fact, the difficulties encountered to implement a growth and development agenda, the high levels of unemployment, the rampant polarization in European party systems, or even the reinforcement of Euroscepticism (Taggart & Szczerbiak, 2004) and the way in which this has shaped successive crises (Taggart & Szczerbiak, 2018), or the challenges provided by the migration crisis (Costa & Teles, 2017; Scipioni, 2018), are examples of the opposition to European values and to the EU’s organization, with special emphasis on the period following the 2008 financial crisis, bringing new dynamics to international political systems and new perspectives on the political dimension the Union should adopt.
In addition to this set of constraints, it is important to mention the exit of United Kingdom from the European Union, in a recent process which still requires studying the respective impact and verifying the reconfiguration of political and strategic alliances on the European continent (Gamble, 2018).
The enlargement process to the Balkan region represents an undeniable opportunity to strengthen the role of the EU in the international context, but it also poses a clear sign of the importance the region has at the political, economic and strategic level. Furthermore, it is clear that the uncertainty regarding the calendar of accession feeds the expectations of other political actors such as China, Russia, Turkey (also a candidate for accession) and the United Arab Emirates to expand their influence in this region (Bieber & Tzifakis, 2020) in a process that undermines citizens' confidence and feeds distrust of the real intention of European leaders to promote enlargement
Is this the last enlargement process? Will the Union enter a phase of “accessions and exits”, given some existing pressures on states such as Hungary and Poland? How many “blocs” can be formed in the Union, representing divergent interests and paths? What is the place for the unanimity rule in such a fragmented institutional arrangement? And does the European democratic model correspond to the expectations of contemporary societies, or does it need to be revised? Are the membership criteria adequate today? And after all, what future perspective is there for the European Union, at a crossroads between intergovernmentalism and federalism?